Sweet Blog o' Mine

Breakthrough

Last night at swim class I had a breakthrough.  We had a sub, and he made us swim three sets of 3X100 meters, with only 10 second between each 100 and 90 seconds of rest between each set. (Warning -- I'm about to dork out here for a second)  Using the two-beat kick we had learned in class, I was able to finish the three sets without once feeling tired or breathless.  I was in shock.  For the first time, I realized that I just might be able to pull of the swim portion of the tri, especially since it's not until August!  Woo hoo!

And on an unrelated note, the pictures of last night's pork-fest are up. 

Pork Butt Rules!

Yes, I'm still recovering from Seattle and everything I ate/drank there.  Didn't stop me and some other brave souls from heading to Momofuku Ssam Bar for the Bo Ssam and more.  And now starts the detox/serious triathlon training. 

Way Out West

I'm off to Seattle for the long weekend to visit Teddi.  Will also get to see Geek, and we're definitely hitting up Salumi and Union (and, of course, Pike Place Market).  If you have any other suggestions, send them along!

Follow Up

In case you were interested to hear about how my cleanse went (and how the Gothamist commenters reacted to it all), the post is now up.

The List

Yesterday I was at a birthday brunch for my friend Sara.  She and Rob had been to Masa on Friday night; she did exactly what I did when I went -- she wrote down every course they had as each one arrived.  So we did what any two food lovers would do in that situation -- we compared notes.  It was clear that, although there were many similarities, the chef had adjusted the menu based on the availability of seasonal ingredients and, perhaps, just for fun.  Here's what I ate:
(first, the warmup)
1. a finely shredded snow crab and cucumber salad
2. toro tartare with caviar and toasts
3. bonito, microgreens, seaweed
4. sizzling baby eels with black olives
5. sea urchin and black truffle risotto
6. ocean trout sashimi
7. cherry trout shabu shabu
8. the shabu shabu broth
(next, the sushi, served by hand, one piece at a time)
9. toro (tuna)
10. shimaaji (striped jack fish)
11. hirame (fluke)
12. tai (sea bream)
13. kinme (Japanese snapper)
14. ika (squid) with sea salt and yuzu dust
15. amaebi (sweet shrimp)
16. hotate (scallop)
17. mirugai (giant clam)
18. torinai (clam)
19. aoyagi (orange clam)
20. grilled toro with scallion
21. kohada (herring)
22. aji (horse mackerel) with ginger
23. saba (mackerel)
24. saori (needlefish) with shiso
25. hamai shrimp
26. shitake mushroom
27. toro (octopus)
28. uni (sea urchin) hand roll
29. anago (ocean eel, cooked)
30. unagi (freshwater eel) wrapped in cucumber
31. black truffle
32. toro scallion hand roll
(then, dessert)
33. shiso with plum paste and sesame seed
34. shisoka melon
and, of course, there was sake -- served in a variety of gorgeous cups, including one fashioned from a bamboo stalk.  Sigh -- now I'm craving sushi. 

Men Suck

Let me start by pointing out that this is a direct quote from my friend Luke, who happens to be married.  The other night, he felt the need to communicate this fact to me and my friend Roopa repeatedly.  And although I definitely have moments when I agree with him wholeheartedly, I don't think that all men do, in fact, suck.  My friend John B., who runs the beach house, has expressed the same sentiments.  He sent me and the Lovely Miss Katie an email recently with "Men Suck" as the subject line.  He discussed his frustrations with recruiting guys for the house and how it has made him much more empathetic to our experiences in the dating pool in which we are wading.  He complained that so many of the guys he encountered during the recruiting process were uncommunicative and unwilling to commit.  This, of course, was not news to us.  And as he said -- it's really just a matter of sifting through all those guys to find the good ones out there -- and there are good ones out there.  I heartily agree with him on that point, but I know what it's like to feel that they're somewhat rare, if not verging on extinct.  And, as the New York Times pointed out in this article that Vivian sent me, they're not out taking classes, so I won't find them there.  The article mentions the Jackrabbit classes (I'm taking the Jackrabbit swimming class) -- I have to say that our class is probably around a 50/50 split.  But then again, many of the people in the class are married.  Plus, I think my chances of meeting a date there is severely impeded by the whole swim cap and goggles situation -- not a flattering look for anyone, male or female, I'm afraid. 

Clues

It's pretty easy to tell when I get busy -- the blog dies down significantly.  Then again, Gothamist posts are still going . . . I have a bunch of pictures to upload from the weekend, but for now here's the brief recap:  dinner at Resto with Ali, training session, run, dim sum at Chinatown Brasserie with Ellen, errands, crawfish boil with Joe, karaoke courtesy of Jenn R., Mother's Day brunch at the new Landmarc TWC, errands, nap, extremely sweaty hip-hop dance class, dinner with Gary at Bar Veloce, collapse.

I Think I Have a Little Addiction Problem

Yesterday I noticed that my cell phone was off, which was weird, because I didn't remember turning it off.  I turned it back on and it immediately went off again.  I had just charged it before work, so there was no reason for it to run out that quickly, I thought.  Until I thought about it some more -- that phone is over two years old and I understand that, after some point, rechargeable batteries lose their ability to hold a charge (like my antique iPod).  Sigh -- guess it's time for a phone upgrade.  I've got Verizon -- any recommendations?

Is It Really Only Wednesday?!

Somehow I'm exhausted -- it feels like it should be Friday.  I can't even express how much I'm looking forward to tomorrow night -- just a trip to the gym and then I get to flop on the couch.  In case you want a peek at a little of what I've done this week, check out Gothamist food and my flickr pics.

Jamon It

Sometimes I look back at a weekend and wonder how the hell I managed to squeeze so much activity into it.  Friday night I had a lovely dinner at Barbuto with Matt, Alexia, and their friend Nicholas, then planned to go home, but somehow wound up at Otto for a bit.  I still managed to get to bed early enough to get up to meet Katie for a bike ride.  Our progress was somewhat impeded by a charity walk/run in Central Park, but we re-routed ourselves a bit and had a good ride anyway.  After biking, I met up with the ladies for an extra-special brunch at Florencia 13, perfect for Cinco de Mayo, Greta's birthday, and a visit from Teddi, who had flown in from Seattle.  After a few hours, I excused myself to go home and prepare for my 10-year law school reunion, which was later that night.  It was much more fun than I imagined -- I got to see tons of people I don't see very often and even more whom I hadn't seen since law school.  And best of all, some of us ended up at karaoke.

Sunday was the D'Artagnan Duckathlon -- a food-related competition of sorts where teams of four, most of which are from restaurants, participate in a bunch of mini-events -- everything from racing around Hogs & Heifers in flippers to guessing the weight of a suckling pig.  We certainly weren't the most experienced or competitive team in the running, but, shockingly, we won the ham-identifying event.  Our prize?  Each of us got an enormous Jamon de Bayonne and a bottle of white bordeaux.  Anyone out there have a deli slicer?  Thanks again to John B., Emilia, and Joe for being such good sports.